Rape cuffs on deputy civic boss

Mohan Srivastava outside a police station in Patna on Tuesday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

The deputy mayor of Gaya Municipal Corporation (GMC) was arrested late on Monday night from a Patna-based hotel for allegedly kidnapping and gang raping two women with six associates.

All of them have been sent to judicial custody till January 20 after being produced before the court of chief judicial magistrate R.K. Yadav.

Mohan Srivastava who was in the state capital on Monday in connection with a meeting, was nabbed along with six other men, including two ward councillors of Gaya from two hotels on Fraser Road by a special team. Two girls, said to be under aged, were also rescued. All the men have been booked under sections 363, 376 (g), 120 (b) and sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Immoral Trafficking Act. While section 363 amounts to kidnapping, section 376 (G) amounts to gang rape. Section 120 (B) amounts to being a party to a serious criminal offence.

Patna senior superintendent of police (SSP) Manu Maharaaj said the police had a tip-off about the presence of some criminals in Patna who had kidnapped two girls from Motihari in East Champaran.

“Based on the tip-off, a special team was immediately formed under Patna city superintendent of police (SP) Jayant Kant. The cops raided room number three of Marwari Awas and found the two girls, along with two men, who were later identified as Mohan Srivastava and Ajay Kumar. The police, during interrogation, came to know that Mohan is the deputy mayor of GMC, while Ajay’s wife is a ward councillor of the same district. The girls said they hailed from Majhagarh in Gopalganj,” said Maharaaj.

“The girls said the men, along with their five associates, had abducted them from near Motihari Hospital. They added that one Anita Devi from Motihari helped these men in abducting them. After they were brought to Patna, the girls were lodged at the Marwari Awas on Monday late night and were gang raped by all the seven. After that, five of them left for some unknown place,” Maharaaj said.

More than 10 packets of contraceptives, libido enhancing medicines and liquor bottles were recovered from the room. “Based on the information given by the two men, the police raided room number 507 of Samrat International Hotel. Five people — Jeetendra Kumar, Pintu Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Jeetendra Prasad and Vinod Kumar Mandal were arrested. The girls identified the men as the ones who had raped them,” the SSP added.

A member of the Congress, Srivastava had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly elections from Gaya town constituency in 2010. He represents ward number 10 of GMC, while Jitendra and Vinod are councillors of ward numbers 3 and 4 respectively. Ajay is the husband of Anju Sharma, the councillor of ward number 13 of the GMC.

Former Congress party MLA from Gaya town and senior party leader Jai Kumar Palit has demanded immediate expulsion of Srivastava from the party and legal action against him.